|
VIRGINIA FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT. MEETINGS OF CURRICULUM STUDY
COMMITTEE APPOINTED BY LOCAL SCHOOL BOARD ARE MEETINGS SUBJECT TO
ACT.
January 28, 1982
The Honorable M. Frederick King
Commonwealth's Attorney for the City of Salem
81-82 437
You ask whether meetings of a curriculum study committee appointed
by a local school board are subject to the Virginia Freedom of
Information Act (the "Act"). Section 2.1-343 of the Code of Virginia
(1950), as amended, requires that all meetings shall be public
meetings except as otherwise provided by law and except as provided
in §§2.1-344 and 2.1-345.
Section 2.1-341 (a) provides that "meetings," as used in the Act,
means the meetings, when sitting as a body or entity, of the
constituent membership of any agency of any political subdivision of
the Commonwealth, including school boards, and other organizations or
agencies in the Commonwealth, supported wholly or principally by
public funds.
I am advised that the committee in question consists of 11
members, as follows: 1 school board member, 6 teachers, and 4 persons
from the community. The committee was appointed by formal resolution
of the school board. The committee has been directed to study various
questions associated with a school system reorganization, and to
report back to the school board with recommendations.
The school board is expressly designated, under §2.1-341 (a),
as an agency subject to the Act. This Office has previously held that
committees established by the bodies subject to the Act must comply
with the Act. See Reports of the Attorney General (1974-1975) at 584;
(1977-1978) at 482. There was once an exemption for study committees,
which has been repealed. See Report of the Attorney General
(1973-1974) at 459.
Accordingly, it is my opinion that the curriculum study committee
is subject to the Act.
|
